Humanverse

Cathy vs Catrice

American parents have registered 170,646 Cathys since 1880, against 1,005 Catrices. Cathy is still ahead, with 12 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Cathy against Catrice, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Cathy Catrice

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Cathy has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1918 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1988, when Cathy had 227 and Catrice had 32.

Side by side

  Cathy Catrice
Total US births 170,6461,005
Most in one year 10,96155
Babies in 2025 12under 5
Estimated living today 141,000960
Median age today 6646
Peak year 19581971
Best rank 34th girls1,665th girls
Rank in 2025 8,362ndunranked
First recorded 19181965
Girls / boys 170,303 / 3431,005 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Cathys alive today are over 66; half the Catrices are over 46. That is 20 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Cathy and Catrice.